Fabiano Caruana takes advantage of form by entering many tournaments

Friday 13 April 2012 18.02 EDT
First published on Friday 13 April 2012 18.02 EDT

Fabiano Caruana's eye-catching bout of tournaments with hardly a break has resumed this week. Italy's world No8, aged 19, had already played more games in March and April than the rest of the top 10 grandmasters combined.

Caruana joined the elite in February when he tied second with the world No1 Magnus Carlsen at Wijk. After that most GMs would have consolidated with a rest, but Caruana went on to two more tournaments. Now, a few days further on, he is playing for Moscow 64 in the Russian team championship at Sochi. He probably felt he owed it to them after Moscow controversially won the 2011 title with a squad built round western Europe's two star teenagers, Caruana and the 17-year-old Dutch champion Anish Giri. It could never have happened in Soviet times.

Spring 2012 has a dearth of invitation elite events after Linares was cancelled because of the recession in Spain while Monaco ceased after 20 years. So for a top talent like Caruana it is open and team tournaments or nothing. Whether intentionally or not, his approach follows a famous old precedent from 1936-37 when Paul Keres and Reuben Fine, then the rising stars of Europe and the US, also played with little rest and ended up tied first at Avro 1938 ahead of four world champions.

There is a moral here for other young talents and ambitious amateurs. When on a winning run, keep playing a bunch of events while your energy and motivation are strong. This gives the maximum chance of the hot streak feeding through into your national and world ranking.

Alex Morozevich's reputation as one of the most imaginative tacticians among the top 10 GMs was boosted again by his Sochi win against the reigning European champion. White's bold concept was to gambit his d4 pawn so that his Ba3 would stop Black castling. It was unwise for Dmitry Jakovenko to take the bait when 15…g6 16 Qd1 Qb4 or a move later 16…Nc2 would hinder White's plan. In the game Moro broke through and Black resigned because the forced 27…Rxb4 leaves him down on material and position.

Sometimes one opening error is enough. Black would remain level by 13…a6! 14 Nd6 Bxc3 15 Qxc3 but as played the Russian champion Peter Svidler got a bind on the position then launched the mating attack 22 Qg6!